1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to computer circuitry, in general, and to a floating point processor with unique architecture, in particular.
2. Prior Art
In the prior art, there are many computing machines and systems available. Many of these systems utilize multiplication techniques for portions of the operating requirements. For the most part, these multiplication circuits and techniques are rather cumbersome, slow relative to the computing apparatus operational speed, and require a large number of components to implement the multiplication process. Various attempts have been made in the prior art apparatus and machinery to provide improved operations. For example, one of the known techniques is to "skip over zeros and ones" which is, to a large degree, accomplished by shifting the partial product rapidly when a string of zeros or ones is detected in the multiplier. It has been found that this "skip over" technique is much faster than the known digit-by-digit multiplication. Nevertheless, it requires a fairly large number of components.
The instant invention, described hereinafter, provides a method to retain the speed of the "skip over zeros and ones" technique while reducing the number of components used.